Outback Steakhouse Valentine's Day Prank

Overview

Outback Steakhouse Valentine's Day Prank refers to a stunt pulled by a Twitter user in which he attended Outback Steakhouse and pretended he was getting stood up on a date with the goal of eliciting sympathy from the staff and getting a complimentary steak.

Background

On February 14th, 2019, Twitter user @baconflavoring,^[1] real name Stephen Bosner, tweeted that he would be attempting to fake being stood up on a Valentine's Day date at Outback Steakhouse with the goal of receiving a free steak from the restaurant out of sympathy. His tweet gained over 1,600 retweets and 6,900 likes (shown below).

Developments

Bosner then continued to post updates about his evening, and how he made it look like he was getting stood up. He asked for a decanter of white wine for his "date," which he had sit across from him for the entire evening (shown below, left). He also finished all of the complimentary bread his table received (shown below, right). At one point he faked leaving a voicemail to his "date," asking her to call him to let him know where she was.^[2]

By the end of the night he had ordered a steak and barely touched it, and played up his performance by crying, chugging his "date's" wine, and eating macaroni and cheese off the floor. He left the restaurant a half hour after it closed, and a couple at the bar paid for his meal.^[3] He also received a complimentary Dr. Pepper from the staff, and he left the waiter a $20 tip. He also donated $50 to the ACLU because his prank was successful.^[4] His prank was covered by the Washington Post.^[5] Having caught wind of the prank, Outback^[6] offered the man and a real date a free meal.

Online, reactions were divided on the prank. User @Conley76 argued that the man cost the waiter money for his prank, gaining over 120 likes (shown below, left). User @handsome_pal joked that he would tell an Outback hostess he was a "fucking loser" in order to get free food (shown below, right).

Search Interest

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External References